The invention relates to seating and particularly to seating for aircraft. Typically, aircraft for commercial use are configured with one region having relatively widely spaced seats for first class passengers and another having closely spaced seats for coach or tourist class passengers. However, in trying to better serve the coach passenger willing to pay full fare or even a premium fare for upgraded service, many airlines have developed a "business class" service. Such "business class" service can take many forms. Sometimes it offers only the regular coach seats in a separate quiet section of the aircraft. In another instance, wider seats arranged at a greater pitch might be offered. In still another situation, a part of a seat back cushion can be folded forward on the center seat of a triple seat to provide a cocktail table separator between seats. In such a design as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,747, the headrest of the center seat remains upright since it is integral with the seatback, thus retaining privacy. Other somewhat similar designs permit the upper part of the seatback to pivot forward so that a plastic tray mounted on the back of the headrest becomes a small cocktail table. This design, because it has a normally rearwardly facing plastic tray on the headrest, is not too esthetically pleasing to a passenger seated in an aft row when the seat is upright. Also, the seatback, when pivoted forward, is quite long, causing it to extend over the front edge of the seat where it interferes with aisle access. A step of considerable height is located between the narrow cocktail table and a large flat area behind it, making it necessary for someone laying a drink down on the table to be very careful to avoid spilling it. A variation of the last mentioned design is to leave the tray off the back of the headrest so that there then is, when the seatback is folded forward, a large upholstered area in front of the large flat area. The two areas are still separated by a step with the possibility of spills. Also, a spill on the upholstery is far more damaging than one on a plastic tray.
The esthetic advantages of a seat in which the headrest can be pivoted down with the back are considerable since one viewing a cabin full of such seats in between others on a large aircraft gets an impression of spaciousness and comfort. Furthermore, with the extremely competitive marketing strategies developed by various airlines, it would be highly advantageous to have a seat that could be quickly converted to a table. Thus, an airline could match different competitors' claims to having 6 abreast seating, or 8 abreast seating, depending upon the market being sold, by merely folding down seatbacks. For example, a 2-5-2 configuration could be converted to 2-2-2-2 by folding over the center seat in the center group of 5. A 2-4-2 configuration could be converted to a 2-1-1-2 by converting both center seats. The latter configuration would greatly enhance the comfort of the two center section passengers between the aisles since they would be spaced from each other by a distance greater than the distance from the passenger across the aisle. However, for reasons noted supra, the use of existing designs of forward folding tray table-headrest combinations presents various problems including aisle interference and an uneven support surface. The latter problem arises from the fact that the back of the headrest extends higher than does the offset back of the folding seat cushion which must fit in a recess in the seat back frame when positioned in a seating configuration.